Makerspaces are collaborative learning centers with equipment and tools to dream, create and innovate in a community environment. The Dr. Welch Workshop: A Makerspace at Penn College (Room 104 of the Carl Building Technologies Center) represents one such “hotbed for learning” – a combination of design, engineering, fabrication and education, where students can produce multidisciplinary projects in a dynamic learning setting. Three of those students sing the facility’s praises in a video added to the college’s YouTube channel: Nathaniel H. Lyon, a welding and fabrication engineering technology major from Frederickburg; Anthony F. O’Koren, an applied technology student from Williamsport; and Ryan C. Kuntz, of Slatington, enrolled in manufacturing engineering technology. “Makerspace to me is kinda like when you were in kindergarten and everything was new and exciting, and you were always learning and getting to learn how to share and play with others and make things and practice your skills,” O’Koren says. “I didn’t know I was a maker until I found a whole community. Once you’ve made a friendship with someone, they’ll come and ask for your advice on what you think the best idea with this would be. You get to articulate or work with others to create an idea.”
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Public meeting to provide overview, update on broadband study
The Penn College community is invited to a public meeting on analysis of regional broadband coverage and potential improvements to that service.
At the session – hosted by the Lycoming County Commissioners from 6-7 p.m. Tuesday, Sept. 24, in Trade & Transit II, 100 W. Third St. – the SEDA-Council of Governments and Design Nine, Inc. of Blacksburg, Virginia, will outline a broadband study for Clinton, Lycoming, Northumberland and Union counties. A survey was circulated requesting input from the public.
Penn College plastics student awarded scholarship
A plastics organization comprising industry leaders has awarded a $3,000 scholarship to a Pennsylvania College of Technology student.
Nathan A. Rader-Edkin, of Williamsport, majoring in plastics and polymer engineering technology, earned the scholarship from the Plastics Pioneers Association.
Memorial blood drive nets 168 lifesaving pints
The Penn College commitment to host a memorial blood drive earlier this month with the American Red Cross truly made a difference. At the Sept. 4-5 tribute to Patrick M. Breen – a longtime General Services employee who died in June 2018 – faculty, staff and students registered 184 total donors, collected 168 pints of blood and recruited 65 first-time donors. “Our efforts have helped boost the community blood supply and ensure hospital patients have the lifesaving blood they need,” said Carl L. Shaner, director of college health services. “With our donation, over 500 patients in need of blood and blood products will benefit from our gift. Thank you, Penn College community, for your gift of time and support. The patients who have benefited from the blood drive are beyond grateful.” Shaner also thanked Joe’s Pizza for its generous donation of pizzas to the donors. The next Bloodmobile will be from noon to 6 p.m. Nov. 13-14 in Penn’s Inn (CC, second floor).
Award-winning Wildcats don’t rest on community-service laurels
For the second consecutive year, Penn College student-athletes helped the Friends of the James V. Brown Library prepare for their annual Fall Book Sale. Wildcat wrestlers, golfers, softball players and men’s soccer teammates aided in loading, moving and unloading over 600 boxes of books from the third floor of the library to Pine Street United Methodist Church three blocks to the west. The sale is open to the public from 9 a.m. to 7 p.m. Friday, Sept. 20, and 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. Saturday, Sept. 21. Wildcat student-athletes won the North Eastern Athletic Conference’s Senior Woman Administrators’ Cup for community service over the summer.
Photos and information provided by Tom Zimmerman, associate professor of psychology,
faculty athletics representative and adviser to the Chi Alpha Sigma honor society
Students, grads encouraged to meet with visiting employers
Penn College students and alumni in majors as varied as welding, baking and pastry arts, plastics and surveying technology are urged to attend the coming week’s information sessions offered by prospective employers.
First-year students trained on repair equipment in CAL
Students in instructor Shaun D. Hack’s Introduction to Non-Structural Collision Repair Applications class got a hands-on visit Thursday from Daniel L. Maloney Jr., national sales manager for Dent Fix Equipment. The industry guest showed freshman collision repair/automobile restoration majors how to use the Aluspot Deluxe DF-900DX aluminum dent-repair station donated last year and a new EZ Nitrogen Plastic Welder DF-EZN1 under consideration for College Avenue Labs.
Photos by alumna Vanessa Mathurin, toolroom attendant for collision repair
Penn College culinary alum feeds ‘souls’
“What I enjoy most out of life is giving back.” Pennsylvania College of Technology alumnus Robert E. Wood lives that credo daily as the executive chef at JBJ Soul Kitchen in Toms River, New Jersey. As part of the Jon Bon Jovi Soul Foundation, JBJ Soul Kitchen is a nonprofit community restaurant that serves paying and in-need customers. Wood, who earned a bachelor’s degree in culinary arts and systems, employs his skills to create three-course meals that feed stomachs and souls. “I love cooking. I love all that stuff. But being able to feed someone that really needs it, someone that really wants it, it goes a long way. You can actually see the difference you’re making in people’s lives.” As is readily apparent in a new video on the college’s YouTube channel, the 2017 Penn College graduate truly is a tomorrow maker.
Penn College faculty present cybersecurity paper
Pennsylvania College of Technology faculty detailed for nationwide peers an ongoing initiative to address the critical shortage of cybersecurity professionals.
Jacob R. Miller and Sandra Gorka, associate professors of computer science, presented “Improving the Pipeline” at the Colloquium for Information Systems Security Education in Las Vegas. Their talk summarized a paper they wrote with Alicia McNett, instructor of computer information technology, and Bradley M. Webb, assistant dean of industrial, computing and engineering technologies.
The annual colloquium brings together educators, business and industry leaders, and practitioners to share ideas, research and needs related to cybersecurity.
Debate attendance affirms interest in mayoral race
An engaged audience of Penn College students, employees and community members crowded into the Klump Academic Center Auditorium for Tuesday’s debate between the two candidates in Williamsport’s mayoral race, sponsored by Penn College’s Student Government Association. In a 90-minute exchange moderated by Craig A. Miller, associate professor of history/political science, Republican Eric Beiter and Democrat Derek Slaughter discussed a variety of relevant issues and answered incisive questions from Miller and attendees alike. The event, which fittingly coincided with the college’s Constitution Week observance, is recounted on the front page of Wednesday’s Williamsport Sun-Gazette and in a FOX56 news report.
Late Top 40 rocker played campus venue in ’80s
Musician Eddie Money, who died Sept. 13 at the age of 70, performed in Bardo Gym during the Fall 1982 semester. As detailed by 1983 journalism grad Marsha J. Roux in that year’s edition of Williamsport Area Community College’s Montage yearbook, Money – appearing in jeans, a San Francisco Giants T-shirt and sneakers – brought the sing-along crowd to its feet with a set that included “Baby Hold On” and “Two Tickets to Paradise” from his self-titled debut album. “I like playing at college campuses and WACC was one of the best audiences we’ve had,” Money said. “Seriously, it was a lot of fun.”
Corvette Club awards scholarships to two Penn College students
The Susquehanna Valley Corvette Club, which supports Pennsylvania College of Technology students through a pair of scholarship funds, recently honored two more beneficiaries of its generosity.
Students Jacob A. Dock, of Middleburg, enrolled in automotive restoration technology, and Chase T. Fritz, an automotive technology major from Athens, each will receive $2,500 during the 2019-20 school year as the latest recipients of club scholarships.
Penn College adds Fronius equipment for expanded facility
Pennsylvania College of Technology’s expanded welding instructional facility will include new equipment, thanks to a continuing partnership with Fronius USA.
Fronius USA LLC is entrusting 12 of its TPS/i 300 machines, units that facilitate multiple welding processes. Fronius is a leading manufacturer of high-quality technology with three business units: Perfect Welding, Solar Energy and Perfect Charging. The company previously entrusted equipment to the college in 2016.
Penn College plastics students earn thermoforming scholarships
Two Pennsylvania College of Technology plastics students were among five nationwide to receive scholarships from the Society of Plastics Engineers Thermoforming Division.
Haven K. Bontz, of Cooperstown, and Nathan A. Rader-Edkin, of Williamsport, both majoring in plastics and polymer engineering technology, earned the scholarships from the professional society dedicated to advancing thermoforming technologies. Bontz’s scholarship was for $2,000, and Rader-Edkin received $2,500.
Where memory serves
From the Fall 2020 Penn College Magazine: “There have been many attempts to place on the record the history of this unusual institution, but such records as exist are scattered and incomplete,” wrote George H. Parkes, the first director of Williamsport Technical Institute, a forerunner of Pennsylvania College of Technology. He would be heartened to know that his words are part of a treasure trove of objects, photos and papers that have been cataloged in the archives of that “unusual institution’s” successor to help to tell the story of the institution and those who have dwelled in its halls. For 20 years, those archives – on the third floor of the Madigan Library – were studied, cataloged and preserved by librarian Patricia A. Scott. Before retiring in June, Scott shared a few of her favorite archives finds. Read “Where Memory Serves.”